US to Boost Number of Refugees It Will Admit in 2017

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A little girl runs among tents as she plays with other children at Ritsona refugee camp, which hosts about 600 refugees and migrants, north of Athens, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. The European Union will add 115 million euros ($129 million) in funding to humanitarian organizations in Greece to assist programs for refugees and migrants before the winter, officials said Saturday.

The Obama administration is planning to increase the number of refugees it will allow into the U.S. in 2017 to at least 110,000, NBC News reported.

It's a 30 percent increase over the current fiscal year and a more than 57-percent jump since 2015. The increase "is consistent with our belief that all countries should do more to help the world's most vulnerable people," a State Department official told NBC News.

Of the 110,000 refugees the U.S. intends to admit, at least 40,000 are from the Near East and South Asia, a White House senior administration official said. Most have been trying to flee the Syrian civil war.

The administration's move comes as many GOP lawmakers and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump warn that Islamic terrorists could be hiding among the refugees.